The Way to Live the Truth

Isaiah 43:16-20           Ephesians 2:19-22 1 Peter 2:4-5 Hebrews 12:22             John 14:1-6

The Way to Live the Truth

When we worked in the North-eastern part of Namibia, we once visited a missionary who worked with the San people. The area was still pretty much remote with wild animals roaming around freely, including lions. One day he took us out to see some of the elephants along with one of his expert San trackers. It was quite an experience as the grass was so high, we could barely see a few metres ahead of us…and lions just happen to be the same colour as the grass.  At one point I asked our friend how the tracker knew where he was going as there was no sign of any kind of road or path.  He then translated what I had asked for the benefit of our tracker. The small man’s face cracked into a broad smile as he wittily replied: “Tell the young man, I am the road”.

In our Gospel passage for today, Jesus also called himself a road…a road which ultimately leads those who walk on it not only to truth but to life. But in what way is Jesus a road and why did he describe himself as one to his disciples? 

Our Gospel passage for today begins with the words: “Let not your hearts be troubled”. Just to set this statement in its proper context, remember Jesus had just exposed Judas, the one who would betray him…he had told them that he would be leaving them shortly and they would not be able to follow him to where he was going…and he had predicted that Peter, one of the three in the inner circle of his friends, would deny him three times before daybreak. Jesus also knew full well that his followers were about to face the apparent destruction of all their hopes and dreams. Their whole world was about to end abruptly. That same night, all their ambitions would be shattered, and they would be so terrified that they would forsake the one they called Lord and hide out together in an upper room for fear of being slaughtered. So, “let not your hearts be troubled” seems like the understatement of all time. 

But any statement taken in isolation or out of context will always be confusing and misleading. The reason they ought not to let their hearts be troubled was because they had to trust God and trust him. “Believe in God,” Jesus said, “believe also in me”. Now, this statement is in the imperative…it is a command…so it might be better translated as “you must trust or exercise faith in God and you must also trust or exercise faith in me”. 

Now, in a sense, the first statement was something they had always done. They had always believed in and trusted on God. From their youth on, God was ingrained in everything they thought, did, or said. Unlike many Christians, every aspect of Jewish life centres around the being of God. We like to compartmentalize things. This is mine…this is God’s. This is my time…this is God’s time. This is my money…this is God’s money. God has no right to what is mine. But to an orthodox Jew, this kind of thinking is, well, unthinkable. God always comes first…in everything…work, recreation, family, friends, finances. To them, God has always been and will always be central to every aspect of life. So, in principle, faith or trust in God was not a problem.

But it was the second half of this statement that turned out to be the sticky one. Everything they had ever believed about Jesus was about to be challenged. Remember, by this time they had confessed him to be the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. But that was before they saw him arrested…that was before they had seen him dragged off bound to stand trial before the Sanhedrin…that was before they had seen him beaten to a bloody pulp…that was before they had seen him condemned to death as a common criminal by the Roman governor…that was before they saw him breathe out his last breath on the cross. 

The one they had thought to be all-powerful…remember, they had seen him cast out demons, heal the sick, raise the dead…the one they had thought would be king…remember they hailed him as such during the so-called triumphal entry…they saw him rendered powerless, pitiful, pathetic before their horror-filled eyes. Believe in him? Trust him? Have faith in him? Only a faith that stretched beyond that which could be observed by the senses could prevail in such circumstances.

They needed a faith like Abraham’s who “contrary to hope, in hope believed”. (Romans 4:18) They had to put aside what they saw and experienced and look beyond the limits of human reason and through the lens of faith keep his promises in focus despite the dread events swirling about them. While their world seemed to be exploding all around their ears, they had to hold on firmly to that which they had come to know and believe about Jesus…even though everything in them demanded denial. They had to trust in God…and they had to trust also in Jesus…not their senses, not their logic, not their instincts, not their fear…they had to trust him completely.

And then, as if to give credence to that trust he added, “In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” The terrible events about to engulf them were all part of something far bigger than they could ever comprehend…Jesus was going where no one else could go to prepare a place for them in his Father’s house. 

As I indicated last week, this is a pictorial representation of every believer’s position in Jesus. There are several things we need to take note of here. First, note the corporate nature of the image. The well-known and oft-quoted KJ version,  “In my Father’s house are many mansions”, comes to us via Tyndale from the Latin word “mansiones” which simply means small dwellings or apartments – sorry to burst any bubbles here, but those sermons on who will live in a shack and who will live in a manor house were quite wide off the mark. But the point I would like to get across is that all these rooms or apartments or dwellings are in one house: the Father’s house. In other words, those who are in Jesus are all together in one big home.

The second thing we need to take note of is that these rooms or dwellings or apartments are viewed as already existing when Jesus spoke these words. “In my Father’s house are (present indicative tense) many rooms.” This is not something Jesus has yet to build. These rooms were there before he went to the cross…but at the cross, he secured them for those who are his own for all eternity.

The third thing to note is that Jesus used the same words, “My Father’s House”, in John 2:16 when referring to the Temple. “Do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” So, it should come as no surprise to see believers described as living stones being built up as a spiritual house or a holy temple throughout the rest of the New Testament. 

For instance, in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Paul described the believer as “God’s temple” in which “God’s Spirit dwells”. But, you may object, this is referring to an individual believer. Well, in Ephesians 2:19-22 Paul wrote: “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

Peter also described this individual yet corporate image in 1 Peter 2:4-5 where he wrote: “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood (picking up on the Temple theme), to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

But it is the author of Hebrews who called this “spiritual house” the “heavenly Jerusalem”. In Hebrews 12:22 we read: “But you have come (note that this is not a future tense) to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering.” 

John elaborated on this in Revelation chapters 21 and 22. It seems pretty clear from the context that what he was describing is no geographical city because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its Temple. Rather this is an image of the dwelling place of those who are in Jesus first described in Ezekiel 40 and following. The gates of this city, John said, are not to be closed to the nations, although they are not permitted to bring any evil into it. (Unlike what seems to be the trend in some modern churches that bring in everything worldly and ungodly!) No, this city is to provide healing for the nations…in my mind, this is referring to the evangelistic task of the Church in the world.

But these two things – the existence of both nations and the presence of sin – these two things alone should prove to us that this city is no future end-of-the-age or pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die-by-and-by reality that John was describing, but rather a very present reality to which all who call themselves by the name of the Lord Jesus have already come. 

Be that as it may, the fact that Jesus has secured for us a space in his Father’s house is a great comfort during times of adversity because it presents to us the eternal decree of God made possible by the death of his Son in our place. No matter what the devil or the world may throw at us, nothing and no one in all of creation can change this – nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:39). If we are in Jesus, we are securely positioned in his Father’s house. 

This is why Jesus told his disciples that they were to believe in him or to trust him at a time when they would be sorely tempted to think he failed them. Like us, they were to trust him because he had proved himself trustworthy in the past. 

In verse 3 Jesus promised them that he was not only going to prepare a place for them (an image derived from the custom of sending out one of a group to secure lodgings and provide necessities )…he was not only going to prepare a place for them, but he would also come back to take them to himself. Now, as I said last week, this has often been interpreted as referring to the second coming of Jesus, but not only is the “parousia” or the second coming of Jesus not a frequent theme in the Gospel of John, but the word “coming” used here is the present tense of “ergomai”, the more general Greek word for coming and going. And the present tense seems to indicate that this coming was so certain as to be already begun. 

It might be helpful to compare what Jesus said here with what he said in verses 18-20. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come (same word, ergomai) to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more (post-resurrection appearances of Jesus were limited to believers), but you will see me. Because I live (in my mind this refers to the resurrection), you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you (all of us together in the Father’s house).” 

The whole context of this discourse seems to indicate that the going and the coming Jesus was referring to here was his death and descent into the place of the dead and his return to life or his resurrection, events which ensure and confirm the promise of his eternal presence with his own. This coming of our Lord results in us entering a union with him as our living Lord and Saviour and consequently, through him, with the Father. In many ways, in Jesus, the future becomes the present.

This is not to deny the Second Coming of Jesus. No, this is to distinguish between the coming of Jesus to the believer in the establishment of an eternal relationship with God (and if you look at the context of the whole discourse in chapters 14-15 you will see that this is where the main emphasis lies in the coming of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to take up residence in us)…this is to distinguish between the “coming” of Jesus to the believers at the point of conversion or regeneration and the second coming of Jesus to consummate or to bring to a final close the Kingdom. 

Now, in verse 4 Jesus told his disciples that they knew where he was going and that they knew the way. We need to remember what he had told them on numerous occasions. For instance, in the parable of the Good Shepherd, he had likened himself to the way into the sheepfold. At the raising of Lazarus, he had called himself the resurrection and the life. These are only two examples, but think about how many times he told them he would be betrayed, handed over, crucified, and resurrected. So, they should have known

But dear Thomas, ever the picture of a well-meaning yet undiscerning individual, said: “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” As we’ve seen before, they were so locked in the physical that they missed the spiritual dimension of the Kingdom. 

And so Jesus replied: “I AM the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Again, in context, this refers to the death of Jesus on the cross through which access to the Father is made possible.

In Isaiah 43:16-20, the prophet had predicted that God would provide a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert for his people. This is, of course, an allusion to what God did in the Exodus but it also points forward to what God would do in Jesus through the Holy Spirit. In the Exodus, God provided a way of deliverance for the freed Israelite slaves…so in Jesus, God provides a way of deliverance for freed sinners. 

I also think this statement may refer to the Fall where the way to God (or more specifically the way to the Tree of Life) was barred because the truth had been rejected resulting in life being cut off. From a deceitful question, “Did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?” Satan quickly moved on to total contradiction: “You will not surely die.” Eve then chose to believe lies over truth.

But now, faith and trust in Jesus who is the truth leads us back to the way to life. Jesus alone is the way and the truth and the life…there is no other way to the Father except through him. 

This statement makes Christianity at once both exclusive as well as inclusive. God alone is the source of truth and of life, both of which are incarnate in Jesus. As such, he alone is the way. There is no truth apart from God…there is no life apart from God…and neither of them are available apart from Jesus.

The disciples would shortly be faced with a dilemma. Was Jesus telling the truth or was he lying? Was he who he said he was, or was he a fraud? Or was he delusional? When the way they thought they were travelling suddenly became rough and rocky, what they believed in their hearts about the one they had confessed to be the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, was all they needed to carry them forward.

They would have to choose whether to trust him who is the road or to abandon faith in him. Jesus was trying to help them to face this choice with a strong conviction that he who was able to cast out demons, heal all manners of diseases, and raise the dead, was also able to overcome what to them, must have seemed “unovercomeable”. 

We too have to make choices when our life turns upside down. When things go horribly wrong, we must learn to trust him who can and who has and who will overrule all things…trust that he can and has and will bring us through whatever crisis we might have to face. The pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die-by-and-by robs you of your assurance of his present presence with you now. You are seated in heavenly places with Jesus. You are securely situated in the Father’s house. The Holy Spirit lives in you now and is building you up together with other believers to be the Temple of the Living God. Believe that. Trust the Truth. Remember, you are following the one who is the road.

Shall we pray?

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2024